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the 'Dead Sea' and the island Laesoe
Take a tour back in time and discover the production of salt, as it was made in the old days. The tour begins in Mariager's Salt Centre in Jutland. Here you can enjoy a 38-39 C* hot salt bath, wich is a replica of the Dead Sea. On Laesoe (Læsø) you can enjoy the peace, nature and the rich animal life and visit the production hut, where you can make your own salt, as in the old days. 147 km.
Mariager´s Salt Centre is Scandinavia's only salt experience Centre - and it encompasses everthing related to salt. It is also here, you can try and experience the swimming pool 'the Dead Sea'. The story about 'the Dead Sea' is quite marvelous. At the time, when they built the Centre, they had to figure out, how salty the wather in the pool should be - and one came on the idea - why not retrieve some water from the authentic Dead Sea. And so it was. An archaeologist from the University of Aarhus, Jens Vellev, flew about half the earth and brought 10 liters of water back from The Dead Sea. So the water in the swimming pool has not only the rigth salt concentration, but also the correct mineral content.
Outside the Centre, you will find a garden with medicinal plants and a boiling hut, where there are producing salt, also known as 'The Whitee Gold', precisely as it was done in the plants in the old days. The salt is called 'The Whitee Gold', because the salt was used as payment in the Middle Ages. On Laesoe, it was Sea salt, obtained by the evaporation of seawater, that was used as currency - and used to pay taxes to the cathedral. By the way, the English word salary derived from the word salt. The salt was important, not only was it used in cooking, it was allso used as preserve the food. Although salt is necessary for us to live and work, surely they they got too much salt in the Middle Ages.
Inside the Centre you find the action cinema, where you can undertake a terrific virtual journey through some of the wold's most famous salt mines. The movie tells the story about the salt from the Iron Ages until now. In the Centre, you will also find the shop, where you can buy different kinds of salt and souvenirs. Maybe you've never thought about whether it makes a difference, but try to taste some of the different spicy salt - it is a divine experience.
The Salt Centre has the world´s largest collection of salt cellars. Around 1550 cellars. The unique collection includes a number of beautiful and distinctive salt cellars of gold, silver and other precious metals, glass and crystal cellars, cellars in porcelain, ceramic ect.
From Mariager Salt Centre, the route brings you up along the east coast of Jutland. Roughly in the middle of the route you have to take a ferry, but only for 5 minutes. The small ferry connects Central Jutland (peninsula) with North Jutland. The route is easy to drive and straightforward. The last 5 km is highway, because its the easiest road to the next ferry that will bring you to Laesoe in about 90 minutes.
Laesoe is the largest island in the North Sea bay of Kattegat, and is located 19 kilometres off the northeast coast of the Jutland Peninsula, the Danish mainland. Laesoe is very special. In addition to a reconstruction of a salt boiling hut from the Middle Ages and seaweed roofs, encourages Læsø history for both myths and anecdotes. In the Poetic Edda poem Hárbarðsljóð, the god Thor comments that it was on Hlésey that he was attacked by and so fought "berzerk women" or "brides of berzerks" who had bewitched all of the men on the island Laesoe. An anecdote tells us that the inhabitants of Laesoe placed horses with lanterns up on the dunes, so the ships would think that the area was navigable. The stranded vessels and associated debris in the form of cargo and equipment, could then be sold at auctions.
A swim in 'the Dead Sea' in Mariager is a must-try experience if you never have been to the authentic Dead Sea - and the visit on Laesoe brings you closer to nature and Danish history.